Gershom Gorenberg - The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977

Our only trouble is that we havent land enough. If I had plenty of land, I shouldnt fear the Devil himself!

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy,
How Much Land Does a Man Need?

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the worldSurely some revelation is at hand

William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

Israeli Politicians and Officials (Party Affiliation in Parentheses)

Y EHIEL A DMONI , number-two official in the Jewish Agencys Settlement Department

Y IGAL A LLON , former general, labor minister, education minister, foreign minister (Ahdut Haavodah)

M ENACHEM B EGIN , leader of the political right, prime minister 19771983 (Herut/Gahal/Likud)

M OSHE D AYAN , former general, defense minister (Rafi)

S IMCHA D INITZ , ambassador to the United States (Mapai)

A BBA E BAN , foreign minister (Mapai)

L EVI E SHKOL , prime minister 19631969 (Mapai)

Y ISRAEL G ALILI , minister without portfolio, in charge of settlements (Ahdut Haavodah)

S HLOMO G OREN , chief rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces, chief rabbi of Israel

H AIM G VATI , agriculture minister (Mapai)

Z EVULUN H AMMER , leader of the Young Guard (National Religious Party)

G OLDA M EIR , Labor Party secretary-general, prime minister 19691974 (Mapai)

T HEODOR M ERON , legal counsel to the Foreign Ministry

M OSHE N ETZER , Defense Ministry official, head of Nahal under Dayan, adviser on settlement under Peres (Rafi)

S HIMON P ERES , Dayan loyalist, Knesset member, defense minister (Rafi)

Y AAKOV P ERRY , Shin Bet agent in Nablus

Y ITZHAK R ABIN , army chief of staff, ambassador to the United States, prime minister 19741977 (Labor)

P INHAS S APIR , finance minister (Mapai)

M EIR S HAMIR , head of the Galilee office of the Jewish Agencys Settlement Department

H AIM M OSHE S HAPIRA , interior minister (National Religious Party)

Y AAKOV S HIMSHON S HAPIRA , justice minister (Mapai)

Z ORACH W ARHAFTIG , religious affairs minister (National Religious Party)

R AANAN W EITZ , head of the Jewish Agencys Settlement Department (Mapai)

Note: The Labor Party was formed in 1968 as a union of the Mapai, Rafi, and Ahdut Haavodah parties. It contested the elections of 1969, 1974, and 1977 in the Alignment with the left-wing Mapam Party.

The United Kibbutz Movement and the Merom Golan Settlement

C ARMEL B AR , army veteran, settler

R AFAEL B EN -Y EHUDAH , organizer

Y EHUDAH H AREL , organizer, settler

K OBI R ABINOVICH , army tank veteran, settler

E YTAN S AT , organizer

Y ITZHAK T ABENKIN , socialist theoretician and ideological leader of the movement

The Religious Settler Movement

Y OEL B IN -N UN , student at Merkaz Harav, Gush Emunim ideologue

Y EHUDAH E TZION , student at Har Etzion yeshivah, founder of Ofrah settlement

M ENACHEM F ELIX , settler in Hebron and Kiryat Arba, organizer of Sebastia settlement bids

B ENNY K ATZOVER , settler at Hebron and Kiryat Arba, organizer of Sebastia settlement bids

T ZVI Y EHUDAH K OOK , rabbi, spiritual leader and head of the Merkaz Harav yeshivah

M OSHE L EVINGER , rabbi, founder of the Hebron settlement and Kiryat Arba, a leader of Gush Emunim

M OSHE M OSKOVIC , activist in reestablishment of Etzion Bloc settlements

H ANAN P ORAT , student at Merkaz Harav, settler at Kfar Etzion, a leader of Gush Emunim

E LIEZER W ALDMAN , rabbi, settler in Hebron and Kiryat Arba, Gush Emunim activist

Israel Defense Forces

D AVID E LAZAR , head of Northern Command in 1967, chief of staff in Yom Kippur War

S HLOMO G AZIT , Dayans coordinator of Israeli government activities in the occupied territories

M ORDECHAI G UR , head of paratroopers in 1967, chief of staff following Yom Kippur War

M ORDECHAI H OD , commander of Israel Air Force in 1967

U ZI N ARKISS , head of Central Command in 1967

A RIEL S HARON , head of Southern Command, later a Knesset member and adviser to Prime Minister Rabin

Israeli Writers

N ATHAN A LTERMAN , poet, founder of the Movement for the Whole Land of Israel

H AIM G OURI , poet and journalist, veteran of the Palmah pre-state militia

Y ISRAEL H AREL , Orthodox journalist, activist in the Movement for the Whole Land of Israel

C HAIM S ABBATO , memoirist of the Yom Kippur War

M OSHE S HAMIR , novelist, former leftist turned supporter of the Whole Land of Israel

N AOMI S HEMER , popular songwriter, creator of Jerusalem of Gold, Whole Land advocate

Settlement Opponents and Critics

L ATIF D ORI , Mapam party activist

A RIE E LIAV , Labor Party secretary-general

O DED L IFSHITZ , member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, organizer of Mapam kibbutzim against expulsion of Sinai Bedouin

A MOS O Z , novelist, kibbutz member

Y OSSI S ARID , protg of Pinchas Sapir, Knesset member

Arab Political and Cultural Figures

S ULEIMAN H USSEIN U DAH A BU H ILU , sheikh of a Bedouin tribe in northeastern Sinai

Y ASSER A RAFAT , leader of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization

H AFIZ AL -A SAD , president of Syria

H USSEIN IBN T ALAL , king of Jordan

M UHAMMAD A LI AL -J ABARI , mayor of Hebron

G AMAL A BDEL N ASSER , president of Egypt

Z AID AL -R IFAI , adviser to King Hussein, prime minister of Jordan

A NWAR AL -S ADAT , president of Egypt, succeeding Nasser

A ZIZ S HEHADEH , Ramallah lawyer, formerly from Jaffa, advocate for a Palestinian state alongside Israel

R AJA S HEHADEH , son of Aziz Shehadeh; memoirist

F ADWA T UQAN , Palestinian poet

United States Officials

M CGEORGE B UNDY , former national security adviser, special coordinator for Mideast policy (Johnson administration)

G ERALD R. F ORD , president of the United States 19741977

L YNDON B. J OHNSON , president of the United States 19631969

H ENRY K ISSINGER , national security adviser, secretary of state (Nixon and Ford administrations)

R ICHARD M. N IXON , president of the United States 19691974

W ILLIAM R OGERS , secretary of state (Nixon administration)

W ALT W. R OSTOW , national security adviser (Johnson administration)

D EAN R USK , secretary of state (Johnson administration)

H AROLD S AUNDERS , National Security Council and State Department expert on the Middle East (Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations)

J OSEPH S ISCO , assistant secretary of state (Johnson, Nixon, and Ford administrations)

We are divided, Haim Gouris mother had taught him, between those with meager spirits and those with torn souls. That night, more than ever, Gouri counted himself as one of the raggedly ripped souls, and he envied the other sort.

A solitary Israeli army jeep growled north from Jerusalem on the road winding through the dark hills of the West Bank. A soldier drove, another carried a gun to protect Gouri and his wife, Aliza, who had insisted on coming along though she could not understand how he had thrust himself into this madness.

The moon, only a narrow crescent, an accidental pencil stroke of light on the December sky, had already set when the jeep pulled out of its Jerusalem base near midnight. They rode though Ramallah and past the shadowed Arab villages strung out along the mountain ridge, and on through Nablus, where by daylight Palestinian demonstrators had littered the road with burning tires, and headed on. Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister, had insisted that Gouria poet and journalist turned negotiator on a moments whimcould not go this way at night in his own car to carry a message from the government.